1) Conroy isn’t backpedaling, he’s reengineering rhetoric: He now claims his plan is to block only material which would be classified as Refused Classification (RC). Well ‘almost exclusively’ Refused Classification — In typical Conroy fashion he has left himself a backdoor with enough room to park a Hummer-sized load of as much ‘unwanted’ content as...

A website containing artistic photographs taken by Bill Henson and classified PG (Parental Guidance Recommended) by the Australian Classification Board (ACB) was included on the ACMA blacklist by mistake says Senator Stephen Conroy. During his appearance on Q&A Senator Conroy described the mistake as a “technical error” and hinted that if mandatory filtering is introduced,...

Tony Jones, host of the ABC’s Q&A, told ABC radio listeners in Melbourne this morning that by Monday his show had received 1000 angry emails for Senator Stephen Conroy, one of his guests this evening. The topic of those emails? Mandatory ISP filtering of course. With such a huge response I’m almost certain Conroy will...

If it wasn’t such a serious issue (and one that has been around for well over a year in Labor land), Senator Conroy’s game of dodge-the-question in parliament today would be comedy gold. Conroy not only fails to answer a single question put forth by Senator Cory Bernardi (good questions, at that, for a guy who...

Senator Scott Ludlam’s showdown with Senator Conroy last week during Estimates (PDF) was a welcome sign that the opposition had stopped sitting on their hands when it came to filtering. However, as Mark Newton pointed out last Thursday evening, Conroy’s answers to Ludlam’s questions about other international filtering examples were rather misleading. Tonight Dale Clapperton...

It wasn’t too long back that Stephen Conroy was bragging about ISPs becoming flexible to his arguments for introducing mandatory ISP filtering. They had SEEN the LIGHT! We all knew that was a pile of horse shit. Now two of Australia’s largest ISPs, IINet and Internode, have publicly slammed the plan. John Lindsay, Carrier Relations...

Update May 12, 2009: Click here for information on filtering in the 2009-10 Budget. Labor will spend $126 million over four years on their Cyber-Safety plan which Senator Conroy says will create a safer online environment for Australian children. That’d be nice if Mr Conroy’s idea of cyber safety didn’t include mandatory ISP filtering for...

UPDATE: You can now listen to this speech here. Senator Conroy is worried about the iPhone. In his speech last night at a Sydney Institute talk on the topic of Broadband and the Digital Economy, Conroy expressed concern about the new fangled phone, noting that because of it the need for mandatory filtering was now...

Live coverage of the Senate Standing Committee (watch here): Senate Standing Committee update 1: Senator Conroy at 8:30PM (ACT Local Time) confirmed he is committed to introducing mandatory filtering at an ISP level. ISP filtering trials in Tasmania will end before June 30th and a ‘live trial’ will follow. Senate Standing Committee update 2: 8:48PM...

Senator Conroy will be interviewed by finance journo Alan Kohler on the ABC’s Inside Business program this Sunday (10/02/2008) . It’s unlikely mandatory filtering will get much attention (if any), but it’ll be worth checking out just to hear Mr Conroy’s other plans for broadband and tech in this country. Inside Business is broadcast on...